Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.
—Immanuel Kant, 1784Quotes
The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
—Lord Acton, 1887Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.
—Laozi, c. 500 BCThe first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
—Dean Acheson, 1970I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!
—George H. W. Bush, 1990I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.
—George Borrow, 1843The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
—H.L. Mencken, 1921All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
—Al Smith, 1933No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.
—Hannah Arendt, 1958Every country has the government it deserves.
—Joseph de Maistre, 1811The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.
—Anthony Burgess, 1972Envy is the basis of democracy.
—Bertrand Russell, 1930